Posted on

Driving In My Car

High School Math teacher (man) sees a student (girl) in need of help…

I was driving home one night from the grocery store when I saw one of my high school students walking down a road with no sidewalk. It was dark and looked dangerous. I pulled over and asked the student if she was ok since it was dark, probably about 8:00 pm and she was alone. The student was clearly upset … she begged me to give her a ride to the school. She looked scared and said she didn’t have her cell phone with her. She told her parents that she was at the football game and she told me that she left the game to visit a friend. Something about her story didn’t add up. It was dark and I didn’t want to leave her alone at night, but I didn’t feel comfortable giving her a ride to the school.

Weighing possible outcomes

  • What if she gets hurt while walking to the school?
  • What if I give her a ride to the school, would I be liable?
  • What if other students see us in the car together, wouldn’t the situation will be open to interpretation?
  • What if there was more to the story that I wasn’t aware of?

Posted on

Emails Leading To Dating

Middle school english teacher (Woman) starts dating a parent of a student of hers.

I am a teacher at the local middle school. I certainly keep my personal life private, but my guess is that if someone wanted to know my marital status, it wouldn’t be too hard to find out. It started when one of my student’s father started an email exchange with me a couple of months ago. The student was having a difficult time in class with reading comprehension and I have been sending home notes in the planner. At first, the emails were strictly about his son’s academic progress but then they veered into personal territory. Quite honestly, they were not inappropriate at all so it seemed natural when we started texting. His son was starting to improve a great deal in his reading scores. The texts and emails continued. We had a date last night … he promised that he wouldn’t tell his son. In fact, he promised that we would only communicate during the weeks when he didn’t have custody. I really like this guy … it seems so comfortable. Since this is my personal life, I don’t need to ask my principal’s permission, or do I?”

Weighing possible outcomes

  • What if the student finds out?
  • Is there anything wrong with dating the parent of a student?
  • What could possibly go wrong?